When it comes to natural resources and the climate crisis, cutting back on waste and boosting sustainability are more important than ever before. Food waste alone is responsible for half of agriculture-related greenhouse gas emissions and is a major cause of environmental damage. Fortunately, innovative solutions are coming to the rescue, and one of them is waste upcycling through bioconversion, which uses naturally occurring and/or engineered microbes to convert food waste into valuable products like bioplastics.
What is Upcycling?
It’s the process of transforming waste into new products of higher value, like when someone finds an old piece of furniture on the roadside, gives it a new coat of paint, and makes it better than new. A new program called wasteCANcreate is doing exactly this, with a high-tech spin!
Ontario Genomics, Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada and industry partners have come together to convert food waste (what you put into your green bin) into various products that would normally be made from oil. Microbial upcycling of food waste into bioplastics puts microorganisms like bacteria and yeasts to work to convert the food waste into bioplastics, textiles like nylon, and other useful materials.
The three main goals for this project:
- Reduce greenhouse gas emissions from sources like decomposing food waste
- Eliminate our need for fossil fuels to create necessary materials
- Create lasting economic opportunities for Canadian industries
Novel ideas like this are being brought to life to revolutionize manufacturing processes and are a key part of the circular economy, which aims to cut waste and pollution, repair damaged ecosystems, and have a positive impact on the world economy.
Initiative members at a workshop in the Spring of 2023. This initiative brings together world-class academic leaders, innovative industry partners, and others to accelerate the development and testing of bioplastics for various applications.
Microbes to the Rescue!
Microbes can be used as tiny factories and are at work all around us – think about your gut flora and the microbes that help make beer, yogurt, and bread. Putting them to use helps reduce our need for traditional plastics, which are most often non-biodegradable and a significant threat to the environment. Bioplastics, on the other hand, are made from biological raw materials and decompose more easily.
Plastics are everywhere you look. Plastic bags, cutlery, containers, and toys are obvious examples, but plastics are also found in most clothing, vehicles, furniture, and even in cosmetics and sunscreens! Plastics are cheap to make and last a long time, making them hard to get rid of. In Canada alone, we produce 4.8 million tons of plastic each year and 29,000 tons end up in the environment, including our waterways.
The upcycling process involves using microorganisms to break down the waste material and convert it into organic acids. These organic acids are then used to produce biodegradable plastics and additives for other products. Biodegradable plastics can replace oil-based plastics, meaning they will be much more easily disposed of and won’t stay in the environment for centuries to come.
Curbing Greenhouse Gas Emissions
When food waste is sent to landfills, it decomposes and released methane gas into the atmosphere. Methane is a greenhouse gas and a major contributor to global warming that is over 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide! So, when we upcycle food waste into bioplastics, we reduce the waste sent to landfills and minimize the production of methane gas.
Economic Benefits
Since there’s no shortage of global waste, using it as a key ingredient for bioplastics is a brilliant idea! The food waste we have now costs us money to handle and store it while it decomposes. This means that any value extracted from this resource will help improve the economy as a whole. The process also creates a circular economy where waste becomes a valuable resource.
Upcycling food waste into bioplastics is an innovative, yet common sense solution for the very real problem of waste management facing Canada and the world. The best part is, the wasteCANcreate program is already at work perfecting this process so it can be used across the country and around the world.
Stay in the loop on exciting developments in our circular future!
This is the first in a series of blog posts detailing wasteCANcreate, Canada’s biomanufacturing opportunities, and the shift towards a circular economy. Stay tuned for more!
